Roaming Black Bear

Let’s start off with the word “Dilemma” “any situation in which one must choose between unpleasant alternatives”, any serious problem. 

A few days ago Governor Corzine visted Sussex at the Grand Cascades Lodge at Crystal Springs. According to Brad Abelow, the Governor’s Chief of Staff, Corzine attended the function, “From the Governor’s perspective, he’s looking for every opportunity to talk with people and hear from people now about what’s going on. What impact the economy is having. He said that that included things the state can do to help and where government can get out of the way”. Wow imagine if that were true? 

When reminded that he was about (6) miles from New Jersey’s major black bear problem area and why he was personally opposed to a bear hunt, he responded, “Well I think that I have read that a lot of this problem, if you would call it that, is something that can be resolved by better game management, waste management and education. And there is a real argument about whether the bear hunt will be effective”. 

The Governor was also asked if his stance would change in the event a young Halloween trick-or-treater were attacked or even killed by a bear. He responded by saying that the question was hypothetical. 

As he was leaving the press conference, Corzine also said that questions about the state’s black bears are best answered by the DEP Commissioner, Lisa Jackson, who was also at the meeting. Corzine said he would check on her availability to speak with reporters. After (20) minutes, Jackson did not come to meet with reporters and the press conference ended. 

Dilemma: any situation in which one must choose between unpleasant alternatives. Solution: stick to inaccurate information, discount “hypothetical” situations, avoid any further questions by passing the now famous, “Wilson Black Bear Political Football” to the DEP Commissioner, who was told to “go-long” and ran out of the end zone into the waiting limo to disappear. 

Many citizens of this black bear area are just amazed that a Governor can actually travel to any area to see how things are going then simply dismiss a “Dilemma”: any serious problem, like the black bear Dilemma, with a record year of intrusive activity capped off by (56) house break-ins and over 1400, complaints including property damage, garage and shed break-ins, domestic pets and livestock being killed and “tax paid for property and taxpayers/voters being threatened and losing the “human-right” to live in a safety zone of their own property and houses. 

The question regarding the Halloween trick or treater may not have been the proper question to kick off a discussion, the real question is; “Governor Corzine you traveled to our area to find out how things were going; not good Governor where we are living in an economically tested time like every other part of the country, but we have one additional “Dilemma”, we have houses being broken into (in case you haven’t had the time to read (56) , domestic pets and livestock being killed, complaints have tripled since 2005 the last year of a hunt in which complaints and intrusive activity went down. 
 

Our families, mothers and children are living in fear each day as the “overpopulated”, not “overfed” black bear has totally disrupted our right to human rights and safety. 

Now Governor can you tell us why when you have acknowledged you are not an expert in Wildlife Management and your new DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson, has no track record or experience at all in Wildlife Management, you are listening to animal-rights/anti-hunting groups rather than the experienced, N.J. Fish &Wildlife professional biologists who successfully brought back the black bear in N.J.”? More importantly, why do two inexperienced people, yourself and Lisa Jackson, not only go against the F&W but go against (26) other states, including our bordering states o N.Y. and PA. whose Governors and DEP have listened to and allowed the successful management of black bears by their F&W. for decades? 

Governor, this is not a “Trophy Hunting” issue as you and Lisa Jackson have been mislead to believe, it is not a “garbage control and/or education issue, it is an “overpopulation” issue and their is only one proven, successful remedy; a legal controlled hunt like took place in N.J. 2003 and 2005.

Reduce the number of bears, continue to do so annually and the population will drift back to the forests where they belong and want to be. Why? Because they will have more room to roam their own natural habitant and the hunting will also serve as conditioning AS THE MAJORITY OF PROBLEM AREAS BORDER STATE AND PUBLIC FORESTS. 

Only then Governor, will “trophy photo takers” be the losers because it is these groups that have been feeding bears and encouraging them to get closer to humans. 

Want some proof? Ask to see a rerun of the so-called, ‘Bear Whisperer” Susan Kehoe, aired on Inside Edition’s 10/02/08, who actually is accused of and being fined for feeding black bears in her backyard, for why? To take pictures of bears in her yard and actually near her seeking some sort of “lame” recognition as the “Bear Whisperer”. When her real handle should be, “the bear nut”. 

Read the review from experts saying what she was doing was “extremely dangerous” and not only to her self but by misleading any watchers into believing that the black bear can be “played-with”. 

Dilemma; Governor and it is yours and Lisa Jacksons, you can own up to the current situation created by inexperienced, emotional, head cases turning wild game management into politics and then allow the F&G to do their jobs and engage legal hunting that has proven successful in N.J. in 2003 and 2005. Or you can continue to ‘dance” as you and Lisa Jackson done in Sussex until one day the “hypothetical” becomes the “inevitable truth” and someone is seriously mauled and/or killed by the states current and growing overpopulated black bear.

Dilemma: black bears, True, proven and only nationwide solution: Legal, controlled hunting, regulated by the states’ F&W professionals. 

Anyone reading this contact your Senators, Congressman, Governor and DEP. The Governor and DEP do not have the facts they only have the animal-rights/anti-hunting voices to go on and although a minority, they are louder at this time.

Mike D